So he carved out fairways and greens, cutting the tall grass and weeds “as short as I could with a push mower.”

They buried coffee cans for holes, using long sticks with a pennant on top as flags. Nine holes took shape over the rolling, roughly 20 acres.

That summer, they had a local men’s league that would play weekly, more for fun than any real competition. Some would show up in workboots. They’d laugh at attempts to putt across the less-than-manicured greens. Balls would hit tufts of grass, Lindholm said, “and jump sideways.” An errant swing by Gunner Mattson, his wife Karen’s uncle, put a club in one of their maple tree.

The family had a float for the course in Felch’s annual Fourth of July parade that summer, with a sign, “Have fun in the sun in Metropolitan.”

Mike and Amber Lindholm's daughter, Micah, putts on Hole 9 at The Lone Birch Golf Course in Felch Township. The nine-hole course was set up by Micah's family and can be played free of charge, with no tee time needed. (Betsy Bloom | Daily News)

But after the golf league closed out its season with a banquet, Lindholm decided it was too difficult to continue. He let the long grass reclaim the field.

His sons, however, never forgot the course. Mike Lindholm and his brother, James, even tried to re-create a couple of the holes — again, using lawnmowers — so they could hit golfballs at home, Mike Lindholm said.

Four decades later, Mike Lindholm visited his oldest brother, Steve, in Vermont. His brother’s in-laws had a small golf course on their property that Mike’s kids enjoyed playing.

It brought back fond memories of that hayfield course long ago. So in 2019, “we asked mom and dad if we could cut a couple of fairways,” Mike Lindholm said, “and just never stopped.”

The nine-hole Lone Birch Golf Course has been a fixture on Metropolitan Road ever since. Just down from Slagle Family Farm and across from a shaggy herd of Highland cattle, it is a surprising sight in the heart of rural Felch Township.

The view from of Hole 9 at The Lone Birch Golf Course on Metropolitan Road in Felch Township. (Betsy Bloom | Daily News)

The Lindholms do not charge to play the course, just have a box on site for free-will offerings that for now have been enough to make it self-sustaining for maintenance and operating expenses, said Amber Lindholm, Mike’s wife.

No tee times or reservations are required and rounds are played at whatever pace patrons want to set. Except for a few special events, the course is open daily early to sunset when conditions allow.

Most who use the course ride side-by-sides, not golf carts, to each hole. They are all par 3 but still challenging, with smaller greens that are easy to miss or overshoot while putting. Mike Lindholm said he’s heard of only one person who claimed to make par.

“Some think the fourth hole is the hardest in the U.P.,” his father added.

But that’s part of the charm — it lets people of all abilities just relax, without feeling like anyone is watching or judging, they said. “I think it gets a lot of golfers out here who (otherwise) might never come out,” Mike Lindholm said.

The other main attraction is the setting. The course overlooks woodlands that offered a prime view of fall foliage. The Lindholms during summer maintain strips of flowering plants between fairways for the pollinators, including a bank of sunflowers along hole 5 and 6 that draw in flocks of birds to feed on the ripening seeds.

Mike Lindholm’s uncle, Donnie Mattson, named the holes and made wooden markers, plus benches throughout the course. He also set a giant golf tee with a bowling ball painted white atop a stripped-down and varnished stump, with the Lone Birch Golf Course name carved in, overlooking hole 9.

In recognition of his work, the course has its annual Donnie Mattson Fall Classic, which took place earlier this month. It’s a four-person scramble event that, like the Helen and Bally Mattson Open in June — named for Mike Lindholm’s grandparents — raises scholarship money for seniors at North Dickinson County School, where Dick Lindholm once taught English and Mike Lindholm now teaches fifth grade.

They’ve awarded about $3,500 in the past three years, Amber Lindholm said.

Other course events helped fund Zion Lutheran Church mission work in the Dominican Republic and the senior trip for the Class of 2025, which son Miles graduated with in May.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the course’s outdoor setting made it a popular place to gather. Some men’s nights would draw about 40. When football games got canceled, the Lindholms hosted night golf with glow-in-the-dark balls for students.

“Glow golf is so fun,” Amber Lindholm said. “We’d just sit out here on the porch and watch the balls go through the air and it’s like ‘Star Wars.'” She’s considering having another night event later this year.

One North Dickinson class reunion included the course in its activities. They’ve had weddings, too, Mike Lindholm said.

The Lindholms acknowledged they’ve had a lot of help in keeping the course in shape, especially from son Miles, 18, and daughter Micah, 21. Miles regularly mows the greens with a custom mower his uncle, James, provided.

They, in turn, now have jobs at the Highland Golf Club course in Escanaba, as does their youngest child, 17-year-old Aunika. And his father-in-law, Mike Brayak, who also works at Highland, will regularly turn up to punch the greens and do other maintenance work at Lone Birch, Mike Lindholm said.

Their nephew, Grant Siegler, earned mention as well, as do all the neighbors and relatives who contributed time or supplies, such as diesel fuel and equipment.

But all in the area have benefited, too, from having a course in Felch Township — North Dickinson even had a golf team the past few years, Amber Lindholm said. Daughter Aunika won a tournament in high school play.

They plan to keep it going for at least the near future. Mike Lindholm wants to put a pond in alongside the first hole.

“And every year, I try to make it better,” he said.

To learn more about The Lone Birch Golf Course, go to the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Lone-Birch-Golf-Course-100068969096666/.

———

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.